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Cutline: McGill University graduate student Olivia Chiu and York University’s Jim Zacher hold AQUA at the Adventure Show held in Mississauga earlier this year.

AQUA, a new experimental underwater robot, can walk on the ocean floor, noiselessly swim amongst school fish unnoticed, and quietly crawl out the of the water and walk onto the beach when its mission is over. So stealthful is this 6-limbed robot that it almost went unnoticed when it made its Mississauga, Ontario debut at the February Adventure Show. Built over a period of four years, AQUA is described as “an amphibious walking and swimming robot”. However, for visitors to the Adventure Show, AQUA looked like a safety deposit box with three flippers sticking out of each side. “ This is the second generation of AQUA” said Jim Zacher, a York University graduate student. “ IT is the result of an on-going research study involving McGill, York University and Dalhousie universities. …

St. Maarten’s 12 metre Challenge. It’s the 1987 America’s Cup over and over again…

Tired old racehorses are put out to pasture. Over-the-hill greyhounds become family pets. And retired 12-metre racing yachts? For five veterans of the extended 1987 America’s Cup campaign, the Golden Years are spent forever rerunning that famous series of races in the warm waters off St Maartens in the Caribbean Sea.Now that America’s Cup has switched to the International America's Cup Class size, the 12-metre has begun to fall out of favour with competitive racers. Although not dead yet (there still a few key 12-metre races being held) in terms of the Big Show, the once mighty 12-metre class seems destined for marine museum collections.But wait, in St Maartens, Canadian businessman Colin Percy has rescued five of the greatest 12 metre yachts ever sailed and brought them to the Dutch/French island of St Maarten. Three to four times a day visitors can now participate in a mini-America's Cup rac…

Can’t get enough of the 12-metre Challenge experience? The next time you are in Australia visit the Melbourne 12-metre Challenge experience.

The Aussie 12 Metre Challenge provides a day of America's Cup Style Racing on board the prestigious "Kookaburra" and "Kiwi” and caters for groups from 10 to 120 people.

The Kookaburra I (KA II) is a high profile 12 Metre Yacht, known for its participation in the 1987 America's Cup Defense in Perth. Kookaburra defeated the Bond Group's Australia IV to defend the Cup for Australia. She also appeared as the feature yacht in the movie "Wind".

The Kiwi (New Zealand - KZ3) also campaigned in the 1987 America's Cup. It was nicknamed the "Plastic Fantastic" for being the first fiberglass boat ever built. Kiwi was sold to the Japanese Syndicate and called "Nippon", before being brought back to Australia in 1998.

Underwater, a mile off shore from the island of St. Maartens, surrounded by a pack of hungry 10 foot sharks I learned an important life lesson. Always look an incoming shark in the eye and stare ‘em down … and if that shark’s nictitating membrane suddenly drops over the eye you are glaring at, put your hands under your armpits and pray!“Show fear?” said shark trainer Estanda Koblasa. “You can’t even think fear. They will know and they will be on you like a pack of dogs chasing a mailman.”Three afternoons a week Estanda is the centre of attention at an underwater sushi party for sharks. While the Czech diver dishes out hunks of raw meat to the sleek gray fish a dozen paying customers sit on the ocean floor and watch this high voltage dinner.“There are shark feeds in a couple of other Caribbean islands, ” said Estanda. “Here in St. Maarten’s we…

5 things to avoid doing during a shark dive and their consequences if you do

1. Don’t pet the sharks.They may nip at your hand thinking you are another shark trying to steal their food. Because of the sharp nature of those teeth, even a small nip requires immediate medical attention. If still have to stroke a shark, wear gloves, their skin is sandpaper rough.2. Don’t pick up discarded meat and hand feed the sharks yourself. Sharks rip, they don’t chew. When the meat is grabbed the shark will immediately shake its head back and forth with enough force to dislocate you shoulder (if you don’t let go).3. Don’t point! These sharks aren’t interested in you, but, if you offer finger food ….If you aren’t holding a camera, and hanging on to a cement block the experts advise you to put your hands under your armpits.4. Don’t use an external power source for your underwater flash.Sharks a…

College Park condo set to top Eaton’s visionStephen Weir, for Metro Canada13 November 2008 01:31

(The subway newspaper Metro - owned in part by the Star - picked up my College Park story from the Star, edited and added a couple of sidebars that they found on this website.) The article had two pictures.

College Park is on the upswing of a roller-coaster ride of boom, bust and boom all over again.A revitalized Eaton’s College Park building, with its iconic, five-star Carlu Hall, has reignited an economic fascination for one of downtown Toronto’s most prestigious and historic blocks, bounded by College, Gerrard, Bay and Yonge streets.Canderel Stoneridge is poised to begin construction of Aura, a 75-storey condominium tower just south of College Park at the corner of Yonge and Gerrard. The residential skyscraper will cover the last street level parking lot along Yonge Street downtown. It will create a vertical community of close to 3,000 p…

College Park is on the upswing of a roller-coaster ride of boom, bust and boom all over again.A revitalized Eaton's College Park building, with its iconic, five-star Carlu Hall, has reignited an economic fascination for one of downtown Toronto's most prestigious and historic blocks, bounded by College, Gerrard, Bay and Yonge Sts. Canderel Stoneridge is poised to begin construction of Aura, a 75-storey condominium tower just south of College Park at the corner of Yonge and Gerrard. The residential skyscraper will cover the last street level parking lot along Yonge St. downtown. It will create a vertical community of close to 3,000 people on a block that was once supposed …

Cutline: Otis Elevator's artist rendition of the Burj Dubai (currently under construction in Dubai) - soon to be the world's tallest residential towers.

On Saturday November 8th, the Toronto Star ran a major feature I wrote about the downtown Toronto city block of College Park. The 3-page story appeared on the cover of the Condo section. There was no room to place the attached sidebar. The actual article appears above (scroll up)

Tallest Residential Building in the Empire

• The tallest residential building in the Empire and the world is the Eureka Tower. The 12-year old building is a 300-metre (984 ft) 91-storey skyscraper located in Melbourne, Australia. • The 78-storey Q1 Apartment Tower, also in Australia, claims that it is the tallest residential building in the world when measured to the top of its spire, which reaches a height of 322.5m (1,058 ft).• The Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat note that there are several residential (condominium) towers being built…

On Saturday November 8th, the Toronto Star ran a major feature I wrote about the downtown Toronto city block of College Park. The 3-page story appeared on the cover of the Condo section. The actual article appears above (scroll up)

Historian, author and broadcaster Mike Filey remembers the great Eaton College Park store

• It is part of the city’s history, it is part of our fabric• My Dad worked there … in the men’s wear. That is where my mother met him• Building showed the status of the Eaton firm, to be able to build that big during the Depression.• “flagship of the Eaton Empire”, but soil conditions and the Depression caused the company to scale back the size of the building• A Grey Coach bus would take shoppers from the Queen Street Eaton’s to College Park. They even had their own transit ticket.• I used to get my car serviced at the BA Gas Station at Eaton College Park’s Automotive Centre off Hayter Street• Building was designed by the same firm that designed Maple Leaf Garde…

On Saturday November 8th, the Toronto Star ran a major feature I wrote about the downtown Toronto city block of College Park. The 3-page story appeared on the cover of the Condo section. There was no room for this and several other sidebars. The actual article appears above (scroll up)

Lawyers. Guns and Money

30 minutes in Court Room 2 – College Park, Ontario Provincial Criminal Court:• A Boston Pizza waitress tells the court that she has found new friends, changed her lifestyle and will go back to school. She was stopped by RIDE on Eglinton Avenue during the summer. She is fined $600• A translator is needed to help a man plead guilty to drunk driving after he too was caught by RIDE on Eglinton. He is fined $1,000 and prohibited from driving for a year. • A 19 –year old is lead into court handcuffed. He is sentenced to a few days in jail for missing court dates and for stealing a lap top computer. The judge is told that the man – a professional DJ - went to an apartment to apologiz…

On Saturday November 8th, the Toronto Star ran a major feature I wrote about the downtown Toronto city block of College Park. The 3-page story appeared on the cover of the Condo section. There was no room to place the attached sidebar. The actual article appears above (scroll up)

Cutline: artist's drawing of an Aura condo living room

Three new levels of government will be created when the Aura is built!

Condo unit owners of almost 1,000 suites and the owners of the Podium retail floors must belong to self-governing condominium associations:

• Three condo associations based on floor location will be created• One condo association for the retail floors up to the 4th floor• Second condo association for floors 5 to 55• Third condo association for floors 56 and up.

On Saturday November 8th, the Toronto Star ran a major feature I wrote about the downtown Toronto city block of College Park. The 3-page story appeared on the cover of the Condo section. There was no room to place the attached sidebar.The actual article appears above (scroll up)

777 Bay Street Dollarrama. University of Ryerson students ‘08 version of an Eaton’s department store.

What you can buy there for a dollar:• Individual plates, cups, glasses and cutlery• 3 movies on 1 DVD including Peter Lorre in Mr. Moto’s Last Warning• Pregnancy test kit• Deluxe can of Vienna Sausages• Bendable pen in the shape of a dolphin• 100 sheets of paper• Squeezy container of bright yellow paint• CD album case covered in poodle pictures• Energy star light bulb• Box of Uncle Ben’s rice

On Saturday November 8th, the Toronto Star ran a major feature I wrote about the downtown Toronto city block of College Park. The 3-page story appeared on the cover of the Condo section. There was no room to place the attached sidebar. The actual article appears above (scroll up)

7 Things To Do At the College Park Block

• Renew your driver’s license in the giant ServiceOntario Centre -- basement of 777 Bay • Witness people loose their driver’s licenses in provincial criminal court. Justice system at work on the 2nd Floor College Park • Photograph the Three Watchmen Totem Poles carved by Haida artist Robert Davidson in 1984 to mark the city’s Sesquicentennial year. The work is made up a 50 foot and two 30 foot totem poles – center mall 777 Bay Street• Do something nice – dig deep and take in a charity event at Carlu • Get off the subway buy dinner in the College Park Dominion Store (soon to be Metro store) and get onto the College streetcar before your transfer times out• Dangle y…

In addition to the condos already built on College Park, there are over 400 apartments available for rent in the old Eaton building. Great Western Life’s College Park Suites has bachelor, 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom units for rent.

• Two bedroom apartment rent starts at $2,250 a month• Parking for residents is $85 per month.• 24-hour surveillance and monitoring• When residents take the subway late at night, they can have a security guard meet them at the station and escort them to their suite.

• The complex has two 20-storey towers and one 19-storey tower. • Two towers are on Bay (711 and 717) and the third is on Gerrard.• Approximately 1,000 residents.

Similar Sized Communities

There are an estimated 4,000 people living in the College Park Block. When the Aura skyscrapper is completed the Block population will be an estimated 7,000 people. According to StatsCan, Ontario towns with similar population include:• Alymer 7,126• Crystal Beach 6,686• Essex 7,002• Kincardine 6,410• Lively 6,70…

Noreen Taylor and the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction helppromote Canadian books in the United Kingdom

The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fictionis giving the nation's book industry assistance in marketing Canadianliterature to the people of the United Kingdom. At the International FestivalOf Authors (IFOA), held in Toronto over the past two weeks, Noreen Taylor, thefounder of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, donated nearly140 non-fiction books to the Department of Foreign Affairs and InternationalTrade (DFAIT), to be used by the Canada High Commission in London, England. The books, all non-fiction titles, were entered for the 2008 CharlesTaylor Prize. On stage at IFOA Ms Taylor presented a signed copy of thewinning book, Richard Gwyn's "John A.: The Man Who Made Us: The Life and Timesof John A. MacDonald, Volume One: 1815-1867 to John Bonar of DFAIT. Picturedleft to right are: Authors Lewis Desoto and Richard Gwyn (seated), Noreen…

There is an art to every Ottawa tripIt is Roger Rabbit. It is 50. It is 100. It is timeless beauty

Toronto, September 6, 2008 – There is always something artistic happening in Ottawa. Depending on one’s taste, this fall you can spend an animated weekend in Ottawa being Goofy (and Porky and Bullwinkle), plus you can see how photographers snap the moment, and, admire the traditional beauty of sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading cartoon events providing first class screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment for both the entertainment industry and visitors alike. This annual festival is one of the biggest of its kind and attracts artists, production executives, students and fans into the city September 17 – 21, 2008 in Ottawa.

Visitors are welcome to take part in many of the festival’s activities. Staged at the Chateau Laurier in downtown Ottawa, the OIAF has a number of public screenings of both new, expe…

Wreck to be sunk at popular dive site - story written for divermag.com.

A 63-year old decommissioned US Naval vessel will soon be acquired by the government of the Cayman Islands and is slated to become Grand Cayman’s newest dive attraction. At a recent press briefing held in Toronto, Tourism, Environment, Investment and Commerce Minister Charles Clifford told Diver Magazine that he expects the USS Kittiwake to be sunk off the popular Seven Mile Beach in June, 2009.Just a few days before speaking to Diver Mag, Minister Clifford signed an agreement on behalf of his government with the Cayman Islands Tourists Association. The agreement formalizes the government's plan to acquire the decommissioned naval ship in order to create a new dive site and give “desired relief for some of our frequently visited dive sites.”

For years the Tourist Association has been trying to acquire a US navy ship to sink off Grand Cayman. Spearheading the campaign to find and sink a ship is Canadian diver Na…

ß The Nisbet Plantation Beach Club, once a favoured holiday retreat for Lady Di, and now a popular Nevis hotel for divers, is offering a $500 Airline Credit this fall. Nisbet Plantation Beach Club will reimburse hotel guests up to $500 toward the cost of their vacation. From October 10 through December 1, 2008 the Nevis property will apply a $500 credit at check out to help offset the cost of airfare. This 36-square-mile Caribbean island lies a couple miles south of St Kitts near the top of the Lesser Antilles archipelago.

ß The collapse of the UK's third largest package holiday group in September left hundreds of British divers stranded in the dive resort city of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt and thousands more in England holding unusable tickets. A statement on the now bankrupt XL Leisure Group's website said the closure was “a result of volatile fuel prices, the economic downturn, and were unable to obtain further funding.&quot…

The Toronto Star has begun airing videos on its popular website thestar.com, to accompany in print articles. When i visited Atlanta, the Aquarium staff shot a video of my dive in the Whale Shark tank. George Socka added music and edited the video for use on the Star website. Ultimately the video did not run (they didn't realize there wasn't going to be any talking ... its all underwater) so it is now posted on You Tube.

The Toronto Star published my whale shark story on July 19th. The three-page feature was the cover story on the Travel Section. I originally wrote a 1,300 word story for the Star. The assistant-editor Susan Pigg asked me to cut it back to 700 words. That shorter version appeared in the Star with only minor edits. You can see that story on the Star's website at: http://www.thestar.com/Travel/article/461491

What follows is the first version of the whale shark story.

A Whale (Shark) of a Tale and its all trueDive Tourism in Land Locked Atlanta. Big Fish. Big Tank. Big Thrill

By Stephen Weir

The Georgia Aquarium dive master was a great salesman. He easily sold four scuba divers on the concept that the aquarium’s mammoth whale sharks are in fact gentle giants. So, no one flinched when a 3ft tall dorsal fin cut through the water within touching distance of their dangling flippers. But, after slipping into the lukewarm water all t…

Indoor Diving for Scuba TouristsThe Atlanta Aquarium is not the only place you can dive indoors. Other locations that open their doors (and pools) to scuba tourists include:

Epcot Centre – Disneyland, Orlando, Florida. The Seas with Nemo & Friends is a 6-million-gallon indoor aquarium with more than 65 species of marine life, including sharks. $150 per dive.Bonne Terre Mine – Bonne Terre, Missouri. The Bonne Terre lead mine flooded in the sixties. Qualified divers are escorted to see mining artifacts, and spooky tunnels. $65.00 per DiveThe Florida Aquarium. Located in Tampa, Florida the large aquarium has a Dive With the Sharks Programme in Shark Bay. $150 per diveBlue Water Aquarium. Chester UK. Dive in 10 year old aquarium and see one of Europe's largest collections of sharks, £199 per diveNemo 33, Brussel…

The Whale shark is the planet’s largest fish. Whale sharks can grow to a length of 18m (60ft) or more and weigh up to 34 tonnes (5 times the weight of a big elephant). Whale shark skin is both striped and spotted. No two sharks have the same colour patternThe Whale Shark is the only member of its genus Rhincodon and its family, RhincodontidaeIn Asia, Whale Sharks are known as Tofu Sharks because of the taste and textureThe Whale Shark is often called the: basking shark, the Shalaam Waan (Thai), requin baleine and chagrin (French), pez dama (Spanish) and the tuko (Tagalog).Whale shark are found in all tropical and warm oceans and are pelagic for most of their lives.

They are filter feeders. They have capacious mouthes which can be up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) wide and can contain between 300 and 350 rows of tiny teeth.A Whale shark has five large pairs of gills. Two small eyes are located towards the front of the shark…

The Make-Up of Seaside and Lakeshore TrashBy Stephen WeirWriter Posts and Reader Respondsdivermag.com

I don't usually post on this site articles of mine that Diver Magazine has posted on its website www.divermag.com. Diver's website gets an impressive numbers of daily visitors ( I get in the 10s they get in the 100s and 1,000s). However, one of the drawbacks of the Diver site is that there isn't a forum yet to show how readers have responded to the articles.

The following story was posted a few days ago (July 15) and almost immediately I received a thoughtful response that should get posted. So what follows is what was posted followed by a response from a reader.

The Washington-based Ocean Conservancy earlier this year released its annual report on trash in the ocean with new data from its 2007 International Coastal Cleanup Project. Their findings? Seashore trash is hurting the world!

Aware of rising fuel costs, the owners of the historic Ash Street Inn have created a package for people taking a motor-vacation to their establishment this summer. The 123 year-old Manchester Bed and Breakfast Inn is offering a $20 refund per night to help guests fill that gas tank.

The Ash Street Inn is a three-story stain glassed filled Victorian home located minutes from Manchester’s cultural and sports attractions. This summer the award winning Bed and Breakfast Inn is offering three packages to lower the cost of a driving vacation.

Guests who spend two or more weeknights received a $20 refund per night. Their “Explore New England” package gives those guests who plan to take driving day trips a $20 a night rebate and for one of those day trips they will also pack a gourmet lunch in an insulated bag for a meal on the road (and guests get to keep th…

On Saturday, May 31st, the Toronto Star ran a story I wrote about the new Trump Tower Hotel and Condo project in Toronto. The story, with an illustration by ED SCHNURR can be see at: /www.thestar.com/article/432040. Below is the original version which was edited by the Star for accuracy and length.

Shoe-horning a luxury hotel and condo tower into the already hyper-crowded financial district of downtown Toronto is forcing Donald Trump's real estate company to think small while building tall. The 924 ft (282 metres) Trump International Hotel and Tower is finally underway and as the hole is being dug in a miniscule plot of land at the southeast corner of Adelaide and Bay Streets, a team of architects and builders are importing both people and different construction techniques to build a $400 million tower where a tiny five and dime store used to stand.…

Like many other self-employed communicators in Toronto I have an exciting/active career. On one hand I am an active publicist working on many high profile projects including the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Toronto Caribbean Carnival and RBC Taylor Prize, Cundill Prize on the other, as a journalist I have one book published (The Sinking of the Mayflower) under my name and have ghost written two other books. I am the travel editor of Diver Magazine and I write travel stories, cultural stories and housing stories for a number of daily newspapers in Canada.I am a Huffington Post. For forty years I have been researching, watching and writing about the History of Diving in the Movies. In the pages of Diver Magazine and a variety of other publications, my articles have been titled Blood And Bubble movies. I have documented over 3,000 movies dating back to the 19th century that show actors/actresses diving or snorkeling on film. My website, with three Blogs and a photography section represent just four small aspects of my work. Always Busy. Never Bored. stephen@stephenweir.com.